Indian cinema is no stranger to war dramas. From Haqeeqat, Border and LOC Kargil to Shershah, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Sam Bahadur – over the years, the Indian Army’s prowess in wars like Kargil has been told and retold. However, the Indian Air Force’s contribution has largely remained a subplot in films and shows. While there have been films like Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Bhuj: The Pride of India, Fighter, and Sky Force in the last few years, nothing has impressed real officers like the 1982 film Vijeta did. Till now.Operation Safed Sagar, a six-episode series about the ‘Golden Arrows’ squadron and the IAF’s role in the 1999 Kargil War, is being described by serving and retired IAF officers as the most accurate and dignified portrayal of the force since Vijeta.After binge-watching Operation Safed Sagar over two days, Major General (retd) Yash Mor says, “It is one of the best series on the Indian Air Force. Isse pehle Vijeta ek picture aayi thi. Ye (the new series) bahut behtareen hai. Indian Air Force par isse achhi series ya picture ban nahi sakti hai.” He also applauds how the show portrays the squadron, their families, and the war itself.The brief from IAF: Keep it real IAF consultants were involved with the project from conception, through research, screenplay, and every stage of writing. They vetted every detail that made it to screen: the movement of hands, the salute, the uniform, designations, even the way officers walk and talk. The brief given to the makers, from the very beginning by IAF, was simple: keep the tone as close to reality as possible. And that appears to be exactly what Operation Safed Sagar has tried to do.Several consultants from the Air Force were present on ground throughout the shoot. The series was shot across multiple active IAF bases, including those at Nal, Chandigarh, Madh Island in Mumbai and Gwalior.The team used operational MiG-21s, Mirage 2000, AN 32, IL76 and Mi17 aircraft for scenes, making it the last production unit to shoot with MiG-21s before the jets were retired last year.Makers say the production’s approach to accuracy and authenticity extended well beyond costume and choreography. Real Air Force pilots flew the MiGs used for take offs and landings in several scenes. In Mumbai, the production built a photorealistic cockpit, with Air Force consultants on ground to guide how it was operated and how the actors moved inside it.Even the lighting was engineered to match reality: studio lights were programmed to move the way the sun does, with the time of day, the light, the distance between Kargil’s valleys, and the height of its peaks all calculated mathematically rather than approximated. The war itself was fought at over 18,000 feet; the show’s aviation sequences were shot at close to 16,000 feet. By the account of actors, the flying sequences were technically complex and demanded real precision to execute.‘The Air Force story must be told’Jab ye log (the show’s team) 2018 mein mere paas aaye thay, at that time I was the chief. I had only two things two say. One, the Air Force story must be told. That was important. And second was that any project like this must move young boys and girls to join the Air Force… We don’t want people who join thinking ki naukri hai. We want people who have got stars in their eyes and who feel that this is the only thing they can do in their life. Those who come with passion will do really well in the Air Force. If the series does that, I would consider that I have achieved my objective– Former Chief of the Air Staff of the IAF BS Dhanoa during the trailer launch. Now retired and living in Chandigarh, he says he regularly urges veterans to go to schools and tell young people that a career in the forces is one of honour‘The values we learnt during Operation Safed Sagar still define us’Operation Safed Sagar was just not a military operation. Never before had the Air Force been asked to do action at 18,000 feet and above. The values that we learnt that time – the kind of unwavering commitment – still define us. We have seen that during Operation Sindoor – how the Air Force has been able to live up to the expectations of the people. The way we innovated and adapted ourselves to those heights and mountainous terrain– Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh.“From the very beginning, we wanted to tell the story of Operation Safed Sagar with honesty, scale, and emotional truth. While the operation itself is extraordinary, what stayed with us throughout this journey were the pilots, officers, and families whose courage, resilience, and sacrifices continue to inspire us.”Oni Sen, Director, Operation Safed SagarI didn’t want to do injustice to somebody’s memory: SiddharthSiddharth, who plays Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, donned the Air Force uniform on screen for the first time. He says the role came with a hesitation. “There is a certain way that heroes are depicted in our entertainment (industry), specifically our martyrs. They are not here to defend or accept their portrayal. Toh woh mujhe thoda mushkil lagta hai.” Pointing out the tendency to sanitise and whitewash the memory of martyrs, he says, “The moment we know someone is a martyr, we tend to sterilise them. We tend to whitewash them. Heroes don’t look like heroes. They are heroes because of their action. So, I was scared. I didn’t want to do injustice to somebody’s memory. So, it took a lot of discussion with Abhijeet (Singh Parmar, co-creator), Oni (Sen, director), and Kushal (Srivastava, co-creator) – and everyone who made the show – that we stay true to a great man’s memory and a soldier’s story.” Siddharth adds that what mattered to him the most was building an honest human being out of what was written in the script.Before taking the part, Siddharth says he had one question above all others: did Ajay Ahuja’s wife Alka Ahuja give her permission? For research, when co-creators Abhijeet and Kushal met Alka Ahuja, she not only shared Ajay Ahuja’s story but also gave them the original wing badge, which Siddharth wore on screen.It took 27 years – at least the story is being told now: Jimmy ShergillJimmy Shergill, who plays BS Dhanoa in the series, stresses, “We should not see that this story took 27 years, but that at least it is being told now. Not just (for) the younger generation, but even for our generation – we never knew about this story. There should be more such authentic stories told.” Shergill shares that he had applied to join the Air Force himself but hadn’t qualified, adding, “Hamare zamane mein 99.9% students Air Force join karna chahte thay.“Talking about how wearing the uniform impacted him, Shergill says, “The thing about the uniform is that the moment you wear it, it changes your entire body language. You feel the strength and responsibility of duty.”The Air Force has never been shown properly: Kushal Srivastava, co-creatorFor co-creator Kushal Srivastava, the show is the direct result of a gap he felt while serving in the IAF. “Having spent some years serving in the Air Force, I always thought that the IAF has not been shown properly on screen. In films and shows, what we have seen of the Air Force (is) as part of the Army. But the culture of is very different. The Air Force’s role went largely untold. Telling that missing story is what led to Operation Safed Sagar.” It was, in fact, the Air Force’s own suggestion that the project take the form of a web series rather than a film.A 2,000-page research process, 200-page pitchCo-creator Abhijeet Singh Parmar approached the project with more than 2,000 pages of research, immersing himself in the lives of real Air Force officers – a process he says began from a position of near-total unfamiliarity with the Air Force’s role in Kargil. A 200-page pitch was submitted for approval to the streaming platform. The team went on to interview numerous fighter pilots and officers who had taken part in the actual operation.Alka Ahuja had shared with the team that the day before a sortie, she would never fight with her husband. “Aur jis din sortie nahi hoti thi main ek din saare topics pe jhagda karti thi,” she had shared. For Abhijeet, that single detail reshaped how he understood the story he was telling. He included it in the series too.